The Peripheral Episode 1 Recap And Review- Action-Packed Future World Fun Showcases Chloë Grace Moretz

Prime Video’s answer to Westworld’s questionable Season 4, The Rings of Power Season 1 void, and House of the Dragon’s looming finale is The Peripheral. This cyberpunk action series based on the novel by William Gibson is a glittery jewel of furious world-building, barely coherent techno battle, and glorious action sequences that take full advantage of its star power. From the first moments with a scruffy shoeless street urchin who is so much more than she seems and an impeccably dressed man, you know you are in for a wild ride. Their enigmatic conversation is one of experience and riddles. Most of The Peripheral Episode 1 feels like this. Part familiar dreariness and part gorgeous futuristic grandeur.

In the Appalachians just past our present, Flynne Fisher, a charismatic Chloë Grace Moretz doing what she does best, cares for her ailing mother and lives with her traumatized war hero brother Burton(Jack Reynor, Midsommar). He loses himself in a VR game world to avoid his difficult reality. He’s a good gamer, good enough to make money but not good enough to be able to do it without his sister’s help from time to time. I’m not sure why she can’t just do the gaming herself, but that underexplained idea is glossed over in lew of more pressing matters like expensive pain meds and a farm under siege by Nazis. This is a violent world. Like so many games today, it is hyper-real and full of gore. Armed with money from achieving the game’s goal, Flynn heads into town for her mother’s medication.

Flynne and Burton’s hometown feels like the inevitable result of an opioid crisis left to run its course. She earns a living repairing things at the 3D printer version of Kinko’s. It’s beneath her, but she can’t game full-time. Then, something new shows up for her brother one day after a particularly successful mission she completed for him. The new tech was sent to him because they mistakenly believed he was the one who made it to an unprecedented high level. She straps on the gear for the promise of a big payday and is whisked away to a slick and stylish London 2100. It’s a gorgeous world of urban shininess and in-game mapping.

It’s an adrenaline rush that feels very real. In her first encounter with the SIM, she plays in her brother’s avatar. There’s something perversely fun about Flynne playing the avatar of her brother through a series of James Bond-esque events. Her impossibly cheeky handle Easy Ice is tasked with finding something or talking to someone. We don’t know which, and she is guided by a female voice in her head. Flynn playing Burton has to seduce and kidnap a beautiful woman. Luckily Flynne is up to the bizarre task. If some of the nuances are lost in charming a woman while sleaved in your brother’s avatar, I’ll forgive it. Scott Smith’s(The Ruins) adaptation slides through ethics and heavier context like a hot knife through butter. Lisa Joy and Jonathon Nolan, whose work on Westworld undoubtedly informs their work here, trade action and excitement for intimate examinations.

A well-shot fight scene with a killer robot skilled in close combat later, and Flynne comes face to face with her guide. She asks Flynne what she would do differently if she knew she would be gone in ten years. These types of enigmatic questions litter The Peripheral Episode 1 but are largely left unanswered. Before she can answer, she is back in the real world, and her fee has been raised. She did so well that they want her back for more work. Armed with her small sum and a need for more, Flynne tries to buy a single pill from local drug dealer Atticus.

Menacing and ignorant, they would rather extort something more valuable than money, but Connor, a triple amputee, and ex-marine from Burton’s squad steps in. Eli Goree(Connor) is excellent and holds the camera as he flings himself with abandon into this end-of-his-rope character. He has nothing to lose and is a wild card that no one wants to tangle with. His unpredictable temperament and soulful presence should be a great addition in later episodes. Equally interesting is slimy kingpin Corbell Pickett (Westworld’s Louis Herthum), who won’t tolerate weakness in any form.

The second time in the SIM, things quickly spiral out of control. Instead of jumping right back into the action, she lies imprisoned on an operating table, awaiting a procedure that sounds very unpleasant because, as it turns out, it is. But, one eyeball transplant later, she is back in business. The new eye grants her access to a fantastical place of endless floors, sizeable whale tanks, and massive data banks. It is eternity or infinity, and like a glowing green shimmer in the desert, it promises destiny, according to her guide.

Unfortunately, before she can seize the day, a killer is dispatched to stop them. Flynne’s helper is Aelita(Charlotte Riley). She is someone with an ax to grind and more secrets than truths. Flynne manages to escape the handcuffs by revealing a mechanical hand. Naturally, the killer wants to know who and where she is. He says he can trace him back once her body’s dead, so there is no reason to stay silent. Aelita escapes in the chaos, and Flynne ejects right as she is being killed, vowing never again to enter that world. That, of course, isn’t an option, and before she can digest what happened, she is contacted by Gary Carr’s Wilf Netherton.

Wilf, a jack-of-all-trades fixer who works with shady megacorp Milagros, may or may not actually want to help her. Wilf warns her she is in danger and to plug back into the SIM world immediately. Simultaneously across town, the Sherrif sees some questionable commando types and decides to follow them. However, his current-day vehicle is no match for their future tech, and they manage to double back on him before running him down in the road in a cloaked car. Wilf isn’t one to take no for an answer and displays some impressive abilities to reach out to Flynne anywhere there is a device. He lets her know there is a hit out on her and her family. Her brother isn’t sure what to believe, but his buddies are down for some drone wars, so anything is possible.

Prime Video’s The Peripheral Episode 1 shows promise. The cast is excellent, and the source material is beyond reproach, regardless of how far off the original mark we appear to be going. The action-packed tonal shift may yet serve an exhausted audience that just wants to sit back and enjoy the ride more than they want to do mental calisthenics. Moretz(Shadow In The Cloud, Kick-Ass) is a great heroine. Hit Girl is an eternal favorite because no one does spunky like she does. Smith’s adaptation takes advantage of her natural gifts by forgoing some of the more heady narrative plot threads in William Gibson’s novel in place of letting Moretz kick ass. With only The Peripheral Episode 1 aired, it’s too early to say if that decision pays off. New episodes of The Peripheral air each Friday. Find all of our coverage here.